The Beach

Some views of Gwangan Beach in Busan. Gwangan Bridge is in the background. Koreans don't really swim, they just wade out into the water or float on tubes. If you notice, all of the tubes look the same. As do all of the umbrellas. That's because you have to rent them. 5,000 Won for an umbrella, 3,000 Won for a little mat to sit on, and 3,000 Won for a tube. The other thing you might notice is that many of the people aren't wearing swimsuits. Seems that they just prefer to wear their clothes into the water, even if they have a swimsuit on underneath.



It was crowded, but not as crowded as I thought it would be. Then again, this is the less popular beach. Haeundae Beach is where most people go to.

Buddha's Birthday

Buddha's Birthday is a national holiday, so I headed to Busan to check out some of the festivities. The temples hang paper lanterns all over the place, I visited two previously seen temples and a new one as well.

Haedong Yonggung-sa

The first temple I visited was Haedong Yonggung-sa. It is located on the coast, with a dramatic vista. It's a bit of a ways from central Busan. If anyone reading this decides to go there, take bus #181 from Haeundae Station. None of the buses the on-line tourist information recommends get quite as close.
















Samgwang-sa

Next in line was Samgwang-sa. This is my second visit to this temple. Lots of lanterns and a wide range of concessions to buy.
















Beomeo-sa

Also my second visit to this temple. I arrived there as night was falling, which appears to be the best time to go. The lanterns were being lit and there was a large crowd participating in the festivities. The little road up the mountain was so overtaxed that it was faster to walk.

Busan Temples: Beomeosa & Samgwangsa

A couple of temples in Busan that I explored over the past weekend. Both will be added to my 33 temple hike, which brings the total to five.

Beomeosa

Beomeosa (official Korean website) is one of the most famous temples in Korea. The original structures date back to the 7th century. There are also a lot of hiking trails around the temple, but they don't do a good job of indicating which direction to go. It's best to just follow the road up to the temple and hike away from there. Not a lot of pictures, as my camera batteries indicated that they were running out of juice.




Samgwangsa

While much less historic, Samgwangsa offers some pretty impressive temple buildings. The main hall is one of the largest I've ever seen. The auxiliary buildings are equally impressive in size. It's much more of an urban setting than the other temples I've visited, but well worthwhile nevertheless.

There Goes the Neighborhood

In my latest wanderings around Busan, I came upon an interesting little neighborhood that was in the process of being torn down. Half of the buildings had been torn down, half of the remaining buildings were half torn down, and the others seemed to be still occupied. Undoubtedly this area will soon be turned into high rise apartment buildings. But in the meantime, the developers are busy trying to vacate the residents. I suppose making them live in a pile of debris is supposed to make them sell out faster.

Busan

My first out of town trip was to Busan. It's about a 10 minute walk to the bus terminal, and from there a 30 minute ride into Busan. Another 30 minutes takes me to Haeundae Beach, which is a very popular beach in the summer.

Here are a couple pictures showing the view along the beach. In the summer, this stretch will be completely filled with people.




I only spent a brief time there, but Busan seems a lot nicer than Seoul. Less crowded, less pollution, and better scenery.